May 20th is World Bee Day, a UN-designated effort in support of sustainable development. The event is spearheaded by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Various activities worldwide aim to get the message out that bees are under threat and that, in the words of the FAO’s Director-General QU Dongyu yesterday, “protecting bees and other pollinators is essential to guarantee agricultural production”.
At a local level, there is much that individuals can do to help out. Planting pollinator-friendly plants and flowers that provide pollen and nectar throughout the year is the best first step. Not using chemical is another. Leaving lawns to grow long – especially in no-mow May – is a third. We can all help out.
However, intensive monoculture production and improper use of pesticides pose serious threats to pollinators . . .
United Nations World Bee Day web page
Let’s be clear that the threat is to all pollinators, which includes all kinds of bees, butterflies, moths, flies and beetles.
To make sense of this, read and listen to Tom Heap on the Sky News website in his article today. Perhaps it’s also the case that honeybees themselves – in too great a concentration in our towns and cities – can also be monocultures. Food for thought.
Links
- The United Nations World Bee Day web page
- World Bee Day 2023 on the FAO website
- The Bumblebee Conservation Trust position paper on honeybees
- “We’ve been doing our best to save the honeybees – but now there’s a sting in the tail“, Tom Heap’s article on Sky News, 20 May 2023
- The Bees in Heene Cemetery, on this website
- The bees in Heene Cemetery, on the Adur and Worthing Wildflower Trail website
